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Jesus
Carrasco was born in Badajoz, Spain, and now lives in Edinburgh,
Scotland. He received the European Union Prize for Literature in 2016. Out
in the Open is his debut novel. It was a bestseller in Spain, has
been published in twenty-five languages, and is the winner of many
international awards, including an English PEN award.

Margaret
Jull Costa has been translating Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American
fiction—including authors like Javier Marias—for more than twenty years.

PUBLISHER'S BLURB:

A searing
dystopian vision of a young boy's flight through an unnamed, savaged country,
searching for sanctuary and redemption—a debut novel from one of Europe's
bestselling literary stars.

A young boy has fled his home. He’s pursued by dangerous
forces. What lies before him is an infinite, arid plain, one he must cross in
order to escape those from whom he’s fleeing. One night on the road, he meets
an old goatherd, a man who lives simply but righteously, and from that moment
on, their paths intertwine.

Out in the Open tells the story of this journey through a
drought-stricken country ruled by violence. A world where names and dates don’t
matter, where morals have drained away with the water. In this landscape the
boy—not yet a lost cause—has the chance to choose hope and bravery, or to live
forever mired in the cycle of violence in which he was raised. Carrasco has
masterfully created a high stakes world, a dystopian tale of life and death,
right and wrong, terror and salvation.

MY REVIEW:

Contrary to
the title, the opening scene centers on a young boy who is hiding in a place that is anything but open: "From
inside his hole in the ground, he heard the sound of voices calling his name,
and as if they were crickets, he tried to pinpoint the precise location of each
man within the bounds of the olive grove. The desolate howling of fire-scorched
scrub. He was lying on one side, knees drawn up to his chest, with barely enough
room to move in that cramped apace. His arms either around his knees or serving
as a pillow, and only a tiny niche for his knapsack of food. ... He sensed that
the men were getting very close now and so he lay utterly still. He heard
his name proliferating among the trees like drops of rain falling onto a sheet
of water." As he lies in his hole, he thinks about his father
and "the black flower of his family's betrayal [that] still gnawed at
his stomach." So...what do we know about this young boy, who is
perhaps eight or ten years of age? All of the men in the village, including the
sheriff, are searching for him, because he has "caused an
incident," an incident that somehow involves duplicity by his family.
All this nameless boy can think about is escaping to a safe place—turning his back on the
village and the olive grove and heading north into the unknown plain, certain that
his carefully collected horde of food and water will be enough to propel him
into a new life.

What could this little boy possibly have done to cause this massive
search? The boy assures us that he "hadn't killed anyone, he hadn't
stolen, he hadn't taken the name of God in vain," so what did he do?
Carrasco doesn't tell us exactly what happened until much later in the
story, leaving only sickening hints—forcing the reader to make his or her own
dark guesses as to who or what the boy has escaped from and what will happen to
him if/when he is caught by his primary pursuer. In an interview, Carrasco says, "When I wrote the novel I tried to create an incomplete psychological profile of the boy. Not just because he was a 'personality in progress' but because I wanted to attract the reader to the characters by giving them a sort of mystery. When I read I'm always tempted to fill in with my own experience of life what is suggested but not said, I think we all do. When the blank says 'fear,' it is more suggestive when the reader fills the blank with their own fear instead of a neat description of what the writer thinks that the character feels."

This is how the old manlooks as he rides hisdonkey, which is loadedwith panniers (saddlebags) filled with his possessions.

Once the boy
escapes from his hole and makes his way into the desolate, tinder-dry,
drought-ridden countryside, Carrasco draws the reader into the boy's mind as he
trudges for miles with the sun beating relentlessly down on his unprotected
body. That night, after his meager provisions have been eaten and drunk, he
comes upon an aged goatherd who catches him when he tries to steal some food.
Instead of punishing the boy, the goatherd shares his food and water, and after
some initial distrust, the boy, the goatherd, and his animals continue to make
their way north. "The old man
and the donkey were at the front, the dog chasing madly after them, and last of
all came the goats, leaving behind a slipstream of dung like the tail of a
comet." The boy is still somewhat distrustful of the goatherd
because he is sure that a reward for his capture has been posted, and the
goatherd is desperately poor, but he truly has no choice but to team up with
this monosyllabic old man if he is to survive.

A rope lighter

Note:The goatherd habitually uses a rope lighter (encendedor de mecha) to light his cigarettes as well as the campfire. Click HERE to see a video of how a rope lighter works. It's pretty neat.

The next chapters follow the group of animals and the two
humans as they move slowly across an arid, dusty, rocky plain pocked with bone-dry stream beds. Although some have criticized this section of the book for
being too slow, I found it fascinating to watch the primitive but principled goatherd begin to mentor
the boy, almost as if the old man is readying the boy to take his place when the time comes. This part of
the book is truly a coming-of-age process for a youngster who has never been
beyond the boundaries of his own village and who has always relied on his
family for sustenance and shelter. Now, he has only himself—and the goatherd—to
keep him alive. Carrasco's writing is filled with the meticulous details of
surviving in this unforgiving landscape (which is based on Carrasco's childhood
in a drought-ridden area of Spain).

Comparisons can be made between the boy's search for safety
and Don Quixote's quest for chivalry. In an on-line interview, Carrasco makes the
following statement on this subject: "There are many parallels
between the books. Both are, in some way, travel books, unfolding in the same
landscape, and danger is a substantial part of the plot. The difference is that
while Don Quixote seeks danger, the boy in this novel, flees from it. In my
opinion the need for safety that the boy feels is actually finally fulfilled by
the encounter with the goatherd. It is, anyway, a psychological safety, which
has been sourced from a newly acquired feeling of autonomy. For the first time
in his early life, he feels that it is himself who is in charge of is own
life. It is good to be aware that life is not cocooned in safety and that
it finally ends." The book has also been compared to Cormac
MacCarthy's The Road.

Eventually, of course, the boy's pursuers catch up with him
in a horrific scene set in the ruins of an ancient castle. From that point on,
suspense builds at a compelling rate as we root for the boy and his savior to
emerge from this virtual nightmare alive. "The elements had pushed
him far beyond what he knew and didn't know about life. It had taken him to the
very edge of death...." The boy struggles to understand the
goatherd's motivations for helping him. He wonders
why the old man has put himself at high risk and has suffered extreme pain and
hardship just to help him escape from his pursuers.

After many
trials and tribulations, the boy "had been guilty of meting out
violence, exactly as he had seen those around him do, and now he was demanding
his share of impunity." But when the boy wants to leave an enemy for
dead, the goatherd reminds him, "He, too, is a child of God."From
this old man the boy eventually learns the importance of compassion to the human
soul.

Although there are a number of extremely violent scenes in
the second half of the book, Carrasco takes a Hitchcockian approach to them,
never giving us the full graphic details, but instead relying on shadows,
sounds, and smells to communicate the horrors. Like Alfred
Hitchcock, Carrasco uses his storytelling as a means of forcing
his audience to project their worst fears and anxieties—to place the reader
just outside the scene as a silent, powerless observer.

In one brief
scene the boy's most feared pursuer meticulously collects a variety of food,
leisurely eats his meal, and then uses his knife to open a handful of walnuts,
carefully scooping out the whole nutmeats. As the terrified boy watches, the
man holds "one half of a nutshell in each hand. Then holding each
half between two fingers, he put them together so that they fitted perfectly
like a brain with four hemispheres." He looks at the boy and
says, "It's important to do things properly. ... And you
haven't." When read in full context, this little vignette will make
the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up.

Click HERE to read or listen to an
excerpt from novel on its Amazon.com page. You can click on the cover art for
print or the "Listen" icon for audio.

Reviews of Fang-tastic Fiction:

Fang-tastic Fiction...allows readers to find the latest supernatural characters and paranormal fiction. The best part is that Mathews has a blog to support her book with lots of updates and interesting features like the creature search and the rating system.--University of North Texas at Dallas,Library Blog

"Paranormal lovers and urban fantasy fans, here's a special Halloween treat for you...with humor and a great love for the genre, Mathews focuses on 'the best of the best' in modern supernatural fiction series, like Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake."--RT Book Reviews(October, 2010)

"Fang-tastic Fiction is a must-have for everyone: die-hard fans of the genre, beginners, and parents wondering what sort of books their teens are devouring. It's an invaluable resource (and not just because I'm in it!)."--MaryJanice Davidson, New York Times best-selling author of Undead and Unfinished

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About Me

After growing up as the high school principal's daughter (an adolescent's nightmare!), I (inexplicably) pursued a career in public education as a teacher, program coordinator, and curriculum/assessment designer. Currently, I have the best job of my life--behind the reference desk at my local branch library.

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FINDING A SERIES OR AN AUTHOR ON THIS BLOG

Only the most recent posts pop up on the HOME page. For older posts, go to the AUTHORSEARCH at the top of the HOME page. If you want to read about a specific supernatural creature, go to the CREATURESEARCH, also at the top of the HOME page.